The Father Hunt

The swinging sixties may be happening outside but life in the genteel world of Nero Wolfe has not changed. Lily Rowan, Archie's longtime girlfriend has a new research assistant, a lovely young woman who has a problem. She has no idea who her father is, nor even the true name of her late mother. When she first approaches Archie and Wolfe about the problem they deem it insolvable but shortly after a very large clue arrives - over $200,000 in cash that had been left to her by her mother with a note stating that it had been sent, $1000 a month at a time, by her father. Armed with this lead, and a large retainer, Wolfe sends out Archie to locate the long missing father. Along the way they manage to step on more than a few toes and uncover a murder as well. The Nero Wolfe series combines elements of both the cozy and straight detective genres. As is common in the cozy genre, these stories have recurring well developed secondary characters who often appear in both main and subplots. There is also an overall lighthearted element in the ongoing banter between Archie and Wolfe. The detective story aspect though is much more pronounced than is the norm for a cozy. The mysteries are complex and challenging enough to keep the reader fully engaged, without relying on the cozy aspect to carry the story. The cozy aspect is not overwhelming, but an accent to the stories. Fans of this long running series will not want to miss another chance to visit the brownstone and match wits with Wolfe. Those who are new to the series could easily begin with this one, but beware Nero Wolfe novels are a bit like peanuts - you probably won't be able to stop with just one.

It's hard not to become fascinated by these books, and this one has an attractive symmetry. The whole Manhattan world of offices and penthouses of the 1940s through the 1960s, and Wolfe and Archie's private domain in the brownstone, comprise a universe inside a universe. It is an imagined world more charming to me than Middle Earth or any such silliness. I love it and only regret there is not an infinite supply of Stout. (Yum). Wolfe is especially "cool" as in unemotional in this one. The police are especially bad--more interested in winning some competition than in serving justice. The scene in which the police penetrate the plant rooms and invade the office is truly upsetting. Stout knows what he is doing. The scene elicits a righteous anger. I am eager for the memory of the book and others of Stout's to fade so that I will have the pleasure of reading them again. By the way, I disagree with the reviewer who disliked the audio version. I listened to it as well, and I quite like the reader's approach. He is very serious and that's what I want. These books, unlike the painfully eye-winking, clownish, and embarrassing TV series that appeared on A and E, are not cute and should not be made so. (Perhaps I am misreading the reviewer's comment and this was not the direction he would like to have seen the reading go). The audio versions are read intelligently and are deliberately dry in their humor. I much prefer that myself.

Here, we join in the search for a father - just as we'd joined in a mother hunt some many years before. There are some wonderful narrative devices used here, and Archie is better than ever. It's one of the best!

They had been to Shea Stadium to watch the Mets. Amy Denovo told Archie Goodwin she did not know who her father was. Her mother was dead and she no relatives. Archie said that Nero Wolfe had an inflated idea about fees. Amy's mother had been a television producer. She had sent her daughter to Smith. Archie had learned, with practice, to recount long conversations verbatim. He did this when Miss Denovo appeared with twenty thousand dollars for a retainer to hire the Nero Wolfe organization to identify her father. Her mother, Elinor, had been careful, correct, and cold. Amy was born April 12, 1945. Elinor Denovo had died in a hit and run accident in May. Three pedestrians and a taxi driver had seen her hit by an automobile, (it didn't slow down), on 83rd Street. It turns out that she was hit by a stolen car. Amy had received money her father had sent to her mother it was presumed. She didn't know who he was and didn't think her mother had liked her. Mother and daughter had lived in New York City. Elinor Denovo had started to work for her employer in 1945 as a stenographer. Her references were not checked. The name of the man sending payments to Elinor was Cyrus M. Jarrett. He had been president of the Seaboard Bank. He had an estate on the Hudson River and was an art collector. The estate was eighty eight miles from the city. Jarrett claimed he knew nothing about Amy. Nero Wolfe and Archie discovered that Elinor Denovo's name was Carlotta Vaughn. She had been secretary to Mrs. Jarrett. She came from Wisconsin. In 1944 she suddenly wasn't there, at Jarrett's home. Jarrett put forth an alibi nixing the notion of paternity. As a financier he had war duties in London and other locations abroad during the summer of 1944. The investigators Saul, Orrie, and Fred were put on the case. (It is amusing to see how in the the Nero Wolfe universe the full press is employed to solve a mystery.) It was determined that Jarrett was the grandfather of Amy and the father was someone, unknown and unacknowledged, called Floyd Vance. This Nero Wolfe mystery is great, fun, sparkling.

They had been to Shea Stadium to watch the Mets. Amy Denovo told Archie Goodwin she did not know who her father was. Her mother was dead and she no relatives. Archie said that Nero Wolfe had an inflated idea about fees. Amy's mother had been a television producer. She had sent her daughter to Smith. Archie had learned, with practice, to recount long conversations verbatim. He did this when Miss Denovo appeared with twenty thousand dollars for a retainer to hire the Nero Wolfe organization to identify her father. Her mother, Elinor, had been careful, correct, and cold. Amy was born April 12, 1945. Elinor Denovo had died in a hit and run accident in May. Three pedestrians and a taxi driver had seen her hit by an automobile, (it didn't slow down), on 83rd Street. It turns out that she was hit by a stolen car. This Nero Wolfe mystery is great, fun, sparkling.